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Sunday, 19 July 2015

This pattern has been sat in my to-make pile for ages after it came free with issue 69 of Sew magazine back in March. After having a couple of weekends away from sewing- mainly due to lack of inspiring fabric, I thought it was about time I knocked together one of these tops with some leftover fabric from my Mimi Blouse.

What initially attracted me to this pattern was its versatility- sure it is described as a 't-shirt' but in the right fabric it definitely has a blouse-like quality. With that in mind I knew I wanted to extend the pattern by 1.5 inches so that there would be enough fabric to tuck into work trousers comfortably. Despite getting into a bit of a mess with the cellotape (ahem), extending the pattern was quite simple.

Assemblage was quite easy and the top was made in an afternoon. The only thing I wasn't happy with was my very poor pattern matching on the centre back seam! In fact I am going to admit it didn't even cross my mind to try- I guess I'm just not really used to tops with a centre back seam? Hmm yeah any excuse! Next time I will keep an eye on this!

The sneaky feature on this top is the gap at the top of the centre back seam fastened with a button. This is really just a feature as the neck is really wide and easy enough to get over your head without undoing. The neck is finished off with a strip of bias binding- I made my own from the fabric... It looks neater from the outside than inside, that's what matters right?

I'd like to make a few more K6217s- Maybe I'll go for block colour next time to avoid pattern matching! Being made up of only three pieces (2 back, 1 front) makes this top a good one for using up left over fabric. No pesky interfacing, no button holes and no zips. I should be able to knock out quite a few!

Saturday, 4 July 2015

The denim I found in Direct Fabric Warehouse is the perfect quality for shirtmaking, soft and comfortable and it presses beautifully! I also picked out some yellowy gold thread for topstitching and the most cowboy buttons I could find on the market. The sneaky surprise with this garment though is the paisley patterned inner neckband- fabric courtesy of my prize fabric from Minerva Crafts, when I was featured Star Make in Love Sewing Magazine. I won quite a wadge of lovely fat quarters and am going to try my upmost to fit some sneaky little bits into future makes as I go along.

I used the same pattern my college tutor altered for me- making the shirt the same fit as my last. Again this fabric was a dream to sew- for once the inside looks as good as the out! No dodgy stitching to hide. The hardest part I found again was when sewing on the button plackets. It can be really difficult once folding under the band to the inside to tell how close your stitching is to the edge. As you are looking at this from the rightside I find it can be really easy to discover you are sewing miles away from the fold on the reverse, or just as likely you won't catch it at all! Any tips on this would be great?
Same applies to stitching the neck band down from the right side- I'm so tempted to do this by hand in the future- though maybe I should just work on my stitch-in-the-ditch techniques?!

Where I have sewn the yoke to the back I seem to have deviated from my 1.5 cm seam allowance. I'm quite certain it was more like 1 cm which has made the back of the arm holes a bit baggy. But I think it could be one of those things no one really notices unless I point it out. So maybe just pretend I said nothing!

The shirt is a great fit and really comfy to wear. I think next time though there are no excuses not to have a go at shirt sleeves...